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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2003;24:1037-1039
© 2003 Elsevier Science NL

Case report

Spontaneous rupture of the left pulmonary artery–caused by long-term steroid use?

^a Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, 37075 Göttingen, Germany
^b Department of Pathology, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany
^c Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany

Received 21 May 2003; received in revised form 29 July 2003; accepted 26 August 2003.

^* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-551-3914256; fax: +49-551-396002
e-mail: dzenker{at}med.uni-goettingen.de

We describe a 71-year-old woman with spontaneous rupture of the left pulmonary artery. She was admitted with pulselessness of her left arm and lack of sensibility in her left arm and leg. Echocardiography and thoracic CT did not confirm aortic dissection. CT only showed hematoma around the descending aorta. She underwent left-sided thoracotomy. Intraoperatively, a rupture of the left pulmonary artery without any evidence of an aneurysm was found. Potentially predisposing factors for this rupture were long-term use of steroids due to COPD and her age.

Key Words: Pulmonary artery rupture • Surgery • Aortic dissection